Let’s Choose a Patron Saint for the New Year!

 

We recently read about a Catholic family’s New Year’s tradition to choose a new patron saint for their family each year. We thought this was a great idea and would make the perfect at-home assignment for this week.  Let’s do this!

 

 

 

 

Who should we pick?
Choose a saint that you feel would be a good fit for your family.  Do you feel like your family is constantly losing things?  Choose St. Anthony!  He’s the patron saint of lost objects.  Maybe your family LOVES animals.  Choose St. Francis!  He’s the patron saint of animals.  Ask each of your family members for their input on who you should pick. There’s a saint for everything!

What are some things we can do to include this saint in our lives this year?

• Put a small statue or picture of your saint in your home.

• Get holy cards or inexpensive saint medals of the saint to keep with you.

• Learn about your saint throughout the year.

• Celebrate your saint’s feast day.

• Do a quick google search to see if your saint has a prayer you can say together and put it up somewhere in your home. Include this in your bedtime prayer routine for the year.

 

What are some great reasons for having a new patron saint each year?

• We are exposed to more saints as we learn about a new one each year.

• Rather than choosing a New Year’s resolution, we can choose a saint with a positive aspect that we can work towards emulating for the year.

• We’ll have more saints that are special to us. This number will grow each year.

• It gives us a new angle to work on ourselves spiritually, taking our new patron saint on as a spiritual inspiration.

• It gives us a reason to celebrate a new saint feast day each year and learn about the traditions that go along with that saint.